Husband and wife pastor team retires from First Christian Church on Valleydale Road

Co-Pastors Edd and Mary Pat Spencer of First Christian Church retire on Jan. 27, 2013.

Co-Pastors Edd and Mary Pat Spencer will retire from First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 4954 Valleydale Road, on Sunday, Jan. 27.

They will be honored during a worship service Sunday at 10:15 a.m., with a reception to follow at the church.

Mary Pat was the first woman ordained in Alabama for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1975.

Edd grew up in the church before it moved from downtown Birmingham to Shelby County. The church was founded in 1874.

"The Church is 138 years old and is still very much alive," Edd Spencer said.

The Spencers took over as co-pastors in August 2004. Attendance had dropped off a bit before their arrival, Mary Pat said, but has rebounded.

The 333-member church averages more than 150 a week on Sundays.

"They needed some direction and leadership," Mary Pat said. "The pastor who follows us is going to find a church that is spirit-filled, outreach-oriented, involved in the community."

When they arrived, the church was best known for its soccer field on Valleydale Road. The church is now known for its mission outreach, the Spencers said.

After the April 2011 tornado that swept through Jefferson County, the church hosted a mission station.

For the past four years, the National Sacred Harp Convention has met annually at the church.

"They were having difficulty finding a place that could accommodate them and was centrally located," Mary Pat said.

The church for several years has hosted the Christian Church's regional Transformation event, for pastors and congregational leaders. This year the conference will be Feb. 8-9, with retired United Methodist Bishop William Willimon speaking.

Mary Pat grew up in Jacksonville, Fla., and attended Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Va.

"We met in seminary in the 1970s," Mary Pat said. "We have always been a clergy couple."

Edd grew up in Birmingham as a member of First Christian when it was located downtown across from the Jefferson County Courthouse and the Birmingham Public Library. That building was later demolished and replaced with a parking lot.

The church had about 500 members in the 1950s and 1960s, but began to decline, Edd said.

The congregation moved in the late 1970s, buying property on Valleydale Road in Shelby County. It opened the campus there in 1980.

"I was raised in that church," Edd said. "I was little Eddie Spencer as a child. It was like open arms when I came back home."

It went from a city church to suburban as people were less interested in driving downtown to worship, Edd said.

"People were not coming downtown," he said. "They decided to come to the suburbs to survive. Now we're out here with 17 acres and woods."

The Spencers spent more than 21 years as co-pastors of a church in Sarasota, Fla., before moving to Birmingham.

Their daughter, Holly Fuqua, is Associate Minister at South Elkhorn Christian Church in Lexington, Ky. She will offer the pastoral prayer on Sunday.

Their other daughter, Stacy Cason, will interpret the Rascal Flatts song "My Wish" in sign language during the service.